Amazed at the comments
For some good information - have a read on the powerforum (
www.powerforum.co.za) Apologies if you know some/all of what I'll try and explain below.
To save you a lot of time and effort there are some basic things you need to know first - it is unfortunately not as straight forward as buying "some panels" and an inverter. Honest opinion would be to use a recommended installer to supply and do it all for you - in the long run its worth having an expert to give you the backup when things go wrong - but of course you pay for that.
I can recommend somebody in the Western Cape, just PM me if you are interested.
With regards to the Inverter:
Either GT (Grid Tie) or Hybrid.
For hybrid there are many options, but I would use one that the installers are familiar with, and where they have tested backup support in case things go wrong. (There are some cheap ones around that are popular - but a lot of negative feedback when things went wrong and the suppliers took months to resolve it)
For GT:
I would highly recommend Fronius - professional units, well priced, long warranties (5 Years out the box - extendable) and it has all the features like wifi, cloud storage for stats etc. There are a few other brands as well.
The Primo range is what I use myself:
http://www.fronius.com/cps/rde/xchg...ronius_usa/hs.xsl/2714_11381.htm#.WD0kOFxuOLU
Something like the 6.0-1 or perhaps 8.2-1 - what makes them attractive is that you can add a lot of PV on a single single phase unit. There are a few prices on the web - but the 6.0-1 is around 30-40k. They are also on the approved list of City of Cape town.
With regards to GT (Grid Tie) or Hybrid - they work and are installed very different. GT does not have any battery chargers, and the install is much simpler and they are far cheaper than the equivalent hybrid (or string of hybrids in parallel)
In essence it "T's into" into your main supply so any power is drawn in combination from whatever your PV array is generating and if it's more than what you draw, the reserve would be fed back into the grid - which is only feasible should you have an old meter - with pre-paid you would have to limit the feeding back to grid which means a lot of "wasted" energy.
If you draw more than your PV generates - the difference will be drawn from the grid (Eskom). (Same with hybrid) Big advantage is that all your current doesn't pass " through" the inverter - which is a problem if you add the whole house, as you are limited to the max current the inverter can handle. In "general" single phase hybrids range between 3000W - 4000W- so your only option would be to either run at least two in parallel (which very few can do) or split your DB board - where some circuits run via inverter 1 and others via inverter 2 - this complicates the install, adds more points of failure etc. To put this into perspective - a microwave oven runs at around 3000W, a kettle as well, a geyser as well. An oven (Smeg) runs at just over 4000W... so ANY of those on at the same time = problems. My previous house had 2x in parallel = 8000W max and I had to be conscious of not having too many things on.
Personal opinion (And you will find very different ones on the internet and forums) would be to go GT, and once the LifePO4 "type" batteries become affordable (ie - cheaper per KW than buying from the grid) add separate battery chargers and a Lithium "type" battery.
A discussion on batteries is a whole other topic - and as said many different opinions, but personally I found lead batteries (which include Lead, AGM, Gel, Lead Crystal) are a waste of money if you dont have a requirement for backup power (loadshedding etc). Technically the lithium type technology is the correct one, but pricey at the moment. (There is a lot of technicalities involved in the battery discussion - too much for typing it out here)
Hope it helps!
PM if you need more info.
"My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" just would not make sence without Pluto. 
